Lassoing the Cresent Moon

36. The start of Servitude

"I heard the whispers of Theodore getting hurt but by the time I got to the scene he was gone. I never saw him again, until I saw Catnap following the prototype like a lost puppy. That's when I realized what had happened. I thought maybe- just maybe, I could tell him now, Maybe we could be friends, but Playtime had different plans."

"I was the leader by day. I helped lead all the critters out safely and helped everyone fake happiness. I brightened up playcare, even when I knew what those bastards were doing. I hated my job, Angel, but we didn't have a choice." He looked away. "The moment we went back to our cells we were punished for anything we did wrong. We were reminded that we were nothing... just broken toys for playcare to use."

He paused. I sighed softly and petted his head. "You're not just a broken toy."

His eyes shot back at me. "Tell that to Theo, you wanna know what his job was?"

I hesitated to answer. Did it have something to do with the red smoke?

"His purpose, Catnap's entire goal was to stay alone with the kids at night watching over them. He'd put them to sleep with his red smoke and be forced to watch as some were dragged away from experiments, others for observations. Call it a sick joke but they figured out Theodore knew the truth, and though this was a fit punishment for someone who had wanted to escape."

I shook my head trying to make sense of the whole thing.

"He was different. He was separate, none of us could see him at night, but each morning I saw the truth. I saw his tired eyes and how the guilt ate away at him. Everytime he tried to fight back they just broke him even more. Electricity, fires, lashes- I was never allowed close enough to hear his screams- but I saw the scars."

"So at night he had to deal with knowing he was helping these monsters hurt children like him? And during the morning, he was exhausted and hurt?"

"The Red smoke hurts him, Audriella. It burns his throat, that's why his voice is so broken."

"But- That doesn't make sense. Why would Playtime Co make Catnap do something that deliberately hurt him?"

Dogday gave a loud laugh before staring at me dead in the eye. "The same reason for making him watch as the red smoke gave some of the children nightmares and hallucinations. The same reason that under the red smoke he's seen as a grey distorted figure. They wanted him to remember his place. That way he'd think twice before defending himself, because out of all the critters... he was the only one that would."

My chest tightened as I heard his words. I had expected Playtime to be cruel- but not to this extent.

"Then one day he stopped talking. It hurt too much to speak. I'd try to comfort him, to help, but whenever he did talk it was about how much he hated the employees. He'd talk about how he wished he was dead, and how the prototype was right all along. As a leader how do you hear that and find a way to keep everyone moving? The other critters were already on the border of breaking down. We needed hope! That's... that's when I did my worst mistake."

"you... told him to stop talking to you?"

"Worse." Terry frowned. "I suggested that Catnap needed a break to de-stress."

"but that's not a bad thing!"

"I told the Staff that Catnap needed a break. I told them he needed a reminder of happiness and friendship- after all that's what us Smiling Critters were supposed to be. I thought the staff would actually help him." He chuckled as he grabbed his head. "are you listening to me, Angel? I was so pathetic! They put him on re-education because of that."